- So I had this dream last night and it has really made me think about this hypothetical situation. From what I remember... here it goes...
So I'm in third grade and it's the first day of school. Everyone is being showed their seats and I'm seated next to my best friend of elementary school and most of high school, Adam. Suddenly, while dreaming, I had this revelation that I knew everything that would happen in the future from my conscious memory. So basically I had this knowledge of the future from September of 1998 to August 11, 2009, that no one else knew but me.
Now for the dilemma that I experienced during the dream...
My friend Adam died in a car crash in junior year of high school. Being a third grader and knowing that he would have an untimely death is no fun at all. Do I tell him? Do I tell anyone? Who would believe me? The answer to these questions is probably a "no". But inside I began to think that I could possible prevent it from happening. I really miss Adam; I think about him nearly every day. He was one of my greatest friends and is dearly missed by everyone who knew him. He taught me to now take things for granted (I actually kind of despise that cliche) and to stick to the things that make you happy. I also adopted my straight-edge lifestyle from him. He was always a positive influence on my life and I would really like to be able to hang out with him again. Would I do anything to prevent him leaving?
This reminds me of a character from Homer's epic poem, the Illiad. Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, but rejected it and was cursed by Apollo. He cursed her by making the Trojan's not believe what she warned them about.
Which leads to the next dilemma...
If I had changed even one thing, big or small, good or bad, it would have an effect on the rest of time following that event. If I told him that he would die in less than 10 years from that day, he would certainly live his life differently, possibly altering the course he would take in life. It might have changed him to the point where he would not have been in the situation where he died. Then, when he would not have died on April 15, 2006, I would have no idea what his life (or mine) would be like now. Even in my dream I would not know what would happen after that event, because I did not actually experience it. Case in point, even changing the one thing (good or bad) could create an infinite amount of good or bad things in the future as a consequence of that altered event.
Also, in terms of knowing events of the future, what would I do about events that either have no negative affect on me or do now affect me personally?
For example, I would know:
- The terrorist attacks of 9/11/01
- The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- The outcome of the next 10 Superbowls.
- The location of the next 4 Olympic Summer Games (and the winners).
- Various natural disasters.
- The things that my friends do now, and where they live and such.
- The election of the first African American President, Barack Obama.
- And of course all other various life events that would take place.
I could either make a lot of money of betting on those events and selling a book with all of the secrets of the next 10 or so years, or I could just keep all or most of those secrets in my head. It seems like my choices are be a rich asshole, making money off the fortunes and misfortunes of others, or, carry the burden of such excess knowledge that I would probably go insane from the anxiety of knowing events before they happen.
Most of my life however, is still unknown, so it's not like I know every event that will take place in my lifetime. I think it would be fun to know how things could be different if were to have done things differently; to know whether or not I made a right choice. But still, the thought of being able to know events of the future is a burden I would not want to have. Hopefully I will not have another dream like that.
